Pincus Asserts Jewry Will Not Submit to Soviet Demands for Ransom

September 6, 1972

LONDON (Sep. 5)

Louis A. Pincus, chairman of the World Zionist Executive, said here yesterday that Jewry will not submit to “blackmail” by Soviet authorities who demand “ransom” to perrait educated Soviet Jews to leave the USSR. “The whole of the Jewish people is in complete and total unity in this struggle,” he said. Pincus addressed a meeting of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. The Zionist official was in London to attend an emergency meeting of Jewish organizations on the Soviet visa demands.

The Board of Deputies adopted a resolution condemning the visa fees as an attempt by Soviet authorities “to impose slavery on Soviet Jews wishing to emigrate” and said the measure would he “fought with all the vigor at our disposal. Jewish sources in the Soviet Union reported yesterday that the Supreme Soviet is due to meet Sept. 19 to ratify the new visa fees that were promulgated Aug. 3.

Pincus said, “We have assembled here in London to unite the Jewish people in action against the ransom demanded from Jewish graduates leaving the Soviet Union.” He said he did not believe “that the civilized world will accept this Russian move in silence.” He said, “We will stand by Russian Jews as long as they go on asserting their rights as human beings and citizens.”

Pincus observed that the Russian authorities never promised that everyone who paid the ransom would be permitted to leave. “They still select those whom they consider eligible for exit visas.” He asserted that “the issues are deeper than that. This is but the culmination of an anti-Semitic campaign which includes the jamming of foreign broadcasts and various harassments and deprivation of employment. If we lose our struggle, others may become the next victims,” Pincus warned.